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Signals Training Consortium Forges Ahead on Training Program
Signals Training Consortium Members at Metro-North Training Simulator Lab
The Signals Training Consortium held its third full meeting last week, May 6-9, 2014, at Metro-North's facility in White Plains, NY. The consortium brings together 20 public transportation agencies and their unions from across the country to create a standardized training program for signal maintainers.
To date, four courses have been finalized covering the introduction and overview of the signals subsystems of track circuits, switches, train stops and grade crossings. Inspection and maintenance courses for these topics have also been drafted. At this productive three day meeting, consortium members:
* Reviewed and finalized inspection/maintenance content for current
courses
* Finalized troubleshooting content for current courses
* Identified consortium locations to pilot courseware as it is completed
* Established courseware development teams for new topics:
orientation, interlocking and signaling
* Worked on Learning Objectives for new courses
* Identified ways to evaluate training long term
* Decided on "Recommended Practices" model for Jumpers
* Identified example module to use for Train-the-Trainer program
* Increased OEM participation
* Videotaped procedure for removing/replacing an operating rod
* Identified ways of strengthening the work of the consortium
For more information on the signals training consortium, contact Mark Dysart.
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On Wednesday May 21, 2014 2:00-3:30pm EDT, APTA will host a webinar on local implementation of transit's new training frameworks developed in recent years. It will include a short summary of the Rail Car Qualification System recently developed for TCRP (E-7) as well as the larger effort to develop standards-based training systems in five frontline technical fields. The need for agencies to utilize these new resources is driven by pending retirements, increasing technical complexity of transit equipment, and expanding transit service. Implementing industry-developed, standards-based training systems is the most cost-effective route to quality training and skills for agency frontline technicians.
Presenters include:
* George Fields, Director of Training and Employee Development,
Greater Cleveland RTA
* Kerry Kopp, Light Rail Maintenance Instructor, Sacramento RTD
* Brian J. Turner, Executive Director, Transportation Learning
Center Public Transportation
Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/827479344 .
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Progressive Railroading - May 13, 2014
The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works yesterday released the text for a six-year, bipartisan surface transportation reauthorization bill to fund and improve the nation's federal-aid highway programs at current funding levels plus inflation. The legislation would build on the "success of the comprehensive reforms and performance-based approach to transportation investment in Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21)," according to a committee press release.
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Project for Public Space - May 2014
You are cutting it close, rushing to catch your bus or train. Just as you arrive to the station/stop, you hear the heart-crushing sound of acceleration. You look up, it's rolling down the line. It's gone. Now you'll have thirty long, lonely minutes to dwell on your near miss as cars careen past you. Your eyes scan the area. It's a bleak, with nothing to do, no way to get out of the elements, and no one with whom to pass the time.
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Railway Track and Signal - May 9, 2014
Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Metro-North Railroad completed a track reconstruction effort that began in July 2013 on the tracks through the central Bronx used by New Haven Line and Harlem Line trains. The authority says the work results in a safer, smoother ride and improved operating speeds. All four tracks on a six-mile stretch from Melrose to Woodlawn now allow for speeds up to 75 miles per hour, resulting in improved performance and reliability in time for a May 11 schedule change. Trains were limited to 60 miles per hour prior to the start of the track reconstruction project.
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New York Daily News - May 11, 2014
Bus riders rejoice! The city could be getting its first world-class Bus Rapid Transit route on which public transportation would roll - unimpeded by traffic - from neighborhood to neighborhood just like subway trains. It's early in the process, but the city Transportation Department is considering creating a BRT corridor on Woodhaven and Cross Bay Blvds. in Queens, officials confirmed. BRT routes - already available in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Guangzhou, China - typically feature bus-only lanes separated from regular traffic by landscaped medians or other barriers.
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The Source - May 6, 2014
For more than a decade, Metro's Research & Development team has been gathering and analyzing data on Metro bus/rail users. The annual customer satisfaction survey was begun to help inform transit planners and division managers of overall customer satisfaction, on-time performance, cleanliness, safety as well as track demographic shifts in Metro ridership. Overall, Metro bus and rail riders both saw slight increases in median income, as well as a decrease in the percent of riders below the poverty line.
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Progressive Railroading - May 11, 2014
For the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), 2012 was an eventful year. Georgia voters failed to pass a transportation referendum that would have helped fund a long-awaited transit system expansion. The agency also received the results of a year-long management and operations audit that unveiled jarring inefficiencies, budget shortfalls and employee morale issues.
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Progressive Railroading - May 9, 2014
In response to a string of accidents on MTA Metro-North Railroad, four congressmen - three from Connecticut and one from New York - yesterday unveiled a bill aimed at improving rail safety. U.S. Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D.Conn.), Jim Himes (D-Conn.), Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.) and Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced the Rail Safety Enforcement Act, which would require that every control cab have an "alerter," an automatic failsafe device that sounds an alarm when a train engineer seems idle while the train is in motion.
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The Boston Globe - May 7, 2014
It has only been a day since bus operator Antoinette Bradley began driving with the MBTA's newest safety equipment, a plexiglass partition that separates her from passengers. But already, she's a fan. "I feel much safer now, and I don't have to worry about anyone," Bradley said. "They need it on every shift, on every route."
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The American Prospect - May 7, 2014
We have seen the future of collective bargaining, and it just may work. It should work brilliantly in Seattle if the city council doesn't screw it up. Last Thursday-May Day, for the nostalgic among you-Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced that a business-labor task force he appointed had agreed on a plan to raise the minimum wage in the city to $15 per hour, over four years.
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Building Transportation Infrastructure
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Planetizen - May 10, 2014
Proposals for light rail, streetcar, and BRT lines spread in every direction from Washington D.C. into nearby climes. Although some are more realistic than others, one blog dares to dream about what the full extent of the proposals would look like. Dan Malouff writes a post, and creates a map, that imagines the full extent of the 267 miles of proposed light rail, streetcar, and bus rapid transit lines proposed in the D.C. metro area.
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NOLA Defender - May 12, 2014
Megabus recently expanded with a route from New Orleans to Orlando, but officials are hoping that's only the beginning of new ways to get across the Gulf Coast. The Southern Rail Commission recently submitted an application to the feds for grant money to plan a train route between the Crescent City and the City Beautiful.
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